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OPINION

We are free to criticize the President

Students at Roosevelt High School participate in a walkout to protest Donald Trump's presidential election victory on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2016, in Des Moines. Similar protests were organized at high schools across the metro. (Photo: Kelsey Kremer/The Register)Buy Photo

Republican Theodore Roosevelt once said, “To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”

I’m tired of people telling us we’re wrong to criticize Donald Trump [Stop vilifying our president's immigration action, March 8]. It’s not just “elitists of the entertainment industry” who hold contempt for Trump’s actions toward some immigrants, it's millions of us who are not “people of privilege.”

Ms. Moyer labels herself a child of immigrants whom I assume are some of the tens of millions of immigrants who have peacefully settled here. While some immigrants have committed violent acts on U.S. soil, none of those she cites are from countries targeted for immigration suppression. The 9/11 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia, a country with strong business ties to many wealthy American politicians, while the Boston Marathon bombers were children of refugees from parts of the former Soviet Union.

Since Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, Trump is not “our elected president.” Regardless, we can criticize any president whose ideas or actions we oppose. Doing so is the right — and responsibility — of every citizen living in a free and democratic nation.